Content strategy is an emerging area of expertise related to user experience design work, defined as “planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content.” This session will provide a brief overview of content strategy concepts and describe how a well-articulated content strategy can enable a better user experience through thinking holistically and strategically about web content -- in other words, in stewardship. We’ll also present a brief case study of how, through implementing these tools and processes, our small department was empowered to stop simply chasing web pages around and instead invest our efforts into crafting a user-centric, sustainable web presence for the IUB Libraries (http://libraries.indiana.edu).

Content strategy is an emerging area of expertise related to user experience design work. This talk provided a brief overview of content strategy concepts and described how a well-articulated content strategy can enable a better user experience through thinking holistically and strategically about web content -- in other words, in stewardship -- in the context of a university library web site.

Content strategy is an emerging area of expertise related to user experience design work, defined as “planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content.” This session will provide a brief overview of content strategy concepts and describe how a well-articulated content strategy can enable a better user experience through thinking holistically and strategically about web content -- in other words, in stewardship. We’ll also present a brief case study of how, through implementing these tools and processes, our small department was empowered to stop simply chasing web pages around and instead invest our efforts into crafting a user-centric, sustainable web presence for the IUB Libraries (http://libraries.indiana.edu).

both sides now

UX + CONTENT STRATEGY

User experience & content strategy are like two halves of a whole, both requiring a focus on both the seemingly smaller details and on the larger picture.

We started out thinking about User Experience in the largest sense, but we also needed a concrete way to approach a very large project. We found ourselves asking questions like, Who are our users? What do they want to know or do? How should we talk with them?

What do you do when you are already many years behind schedule? How do you balance data collection and analysis with a pressing need to Git-R-Done?

structure

A good strategy needs a shared understanding of where you are now and where you're going; or, to a bunch of word nerds, it calls for some definitions.

What is the library website, anyway? Here's our working definition.

An integrated representation of the organization providing continuously updated content (and tools) to engage with the academic mission of the University, constructed and maintained for the benefit of the user. Value is placed on consumption of content by the user rather than production of content by staff.

conversational

contextual

Content is:

contextual - our writing serves as a bridge connecting current events and scholarship to library collections or academic pursuits; that is to say, placing the day-to-day in the broader universe of scholarly publishing and the Academy.

curated

Content is:

carefully curated to provide the best recommendations for researchers.

To expand on this- we actively avoid duplication to "save the time of the reader" (Ranganathan)- we highlight librarian expertise and knowledge as relevant to user journey- website content does not meet archival standards (not a repository)